Tuesday, October 16, 2012

On Monday, the 20th, it was finally time
to leave the coast. We had a great time seeing Boomer
friends, but, we had a job to get to and still had a
couple of visits to make along the way.

Our next stop was at Jerry & Carol Miller's house in
Grants Pass. We had enjoyed the cooler weather at the
ocean, but, when we went inland it got hot again.

Our hosts, Carol & Jerry

We
were able to park right alongside their house in back of
their motorhome while we were there. They took us around
their town to show us stuff, we even walked through a
really neat antique store. There was so much stuff that
I definitely would have bought, if we'd been going
straight back to Yuma.

One of our days, we drove to Crater

Crater Lake Lodge

Lake, which was
about an hour and a half from their house. We stopped
along the way to see the Rogue

Inside the lobby looking towards the dining room

River several times, as
well as some falls. Very scenic! When we got to Crater
Lake, it was a beautiful day, if a bit cold and windy.
We'd been up there before

Going out to overlook the lake

in 2003, after we'd worked a
summer job in Madras, OR., and it was just as we'd
remembered it. This time, we decided we'd have lunch in
the lodge. I don't think I noticed

View from the hotel

the lodge last time
we were up there, though.

Ron, me, Carol & Jerry

Like our friends, Gretchen & Frank, Jerry &
Carol LOVE to play

Falls on the Rogue River

cards, so that is what we did when we
were not out sightseeing. We passed a pleasant week with
them.

Looking down the Rogue River

They were busy getting ready to head south for the
winter and we will see them later in the season,
probably either Yuma or Quartzsite.

Our final visit was with my side of
the family. My niece, Gina, and her kids live in Redding,
CA. We would only be there for four days. Before we got
the pumpkin job, we were planning on being there for a lot
longer than that, but, I was still thankful we had some
time with them anyway. We hadn't seen them since the last
time we drove through there on our way to a summer job in
Estacada, OR. That time, we only got to see them for part
of a day and night. At least, this time, we got to stay
longer and parked right in front of their house. A lot of
the neighbors came by for tours through the bus.

We had lots of good times and we had a Twilight movie
marathon of all four movies, as the new one comes out in
mid November. Gina's boyfriend made several attempts going
out hunting for deer in the nearby mountains, but, each
time, he got skunked. Hopefully, by now, he has been
successful.

Finally, it was time to head for our

Looking at our pumpkin lot from the parking lot

pumpkin lot in Walnut
Creek, which is about 20 miles, maybe less, east of
Oakland

A closer look

on the east side of the bay. We first worked for
our boss, Kevin, in 2008 at a lot just a few blocks

As you walk into the lot

away from
where we are right now. We did both pumpkins and trees. It
was a

Our sales booth

very large lot and he'd had it 10 years or more,

Munchkins, our littlest pumpkins

so
had a very loyal clientele. Unfortunately,

The decorative stuff

someone had
bought the land and wanted to build condos on it. They
finally accomplished that goal and he was out of a lot for
about two

Some plain, some a little warty

years, before finally getting this one about
three years ago. Fortunately, I think his

Cinderella pumpkins in the foreground

loyal customers
are starting to come back again. He also has a tree lot at
this location and asked us if we'd think

Blue hubbard squash

about staying for
that. But, we politely declined, it's just too much. We're
already here for a whole month, working 12 hour days/7
days a

White pumpkins

week. We'd rather be back in Yuma where it's a lot
warmer than here in December!

We are on the grounds of the

Red Warty pumpkins

Shadelands Ranch Museum, on Ygnacio Valley
Rd. Shadelands Ranch was established by Hiram Penniman, an early
American settler of

Grey pumpkins

California in 1856 as one of the first and largest
farms in California's Yganico Valley. Today it is managed by the Walnut
Creek Historical Society and has been open

don't know the names of these, but, they look like they have barnacles on them

to the public since 1972 as
an historical museum, the ranch house still furnished with much of the
Pennimans' original

A closer look, very unusual

furniture.
In the fall and spring, local third graders are invited to participate
in the Living History Program 1906.

One Too Many, they look like bloodshot eyes

Classes spend the day at the museum
and relive Walnut Creek History. Docents play characters who lived at
the Shadeland's Fruit Ranch in 1906 and help students do chores, play
games, tour the chocolate colored redwood house, visit the Japanese
workers bunkhouse, see the water tower, examine the basement, collect
herbs, and plant seeds in the slow food garden.

Our pumpkin patch is to the side of the house and
right along the busy street. The bus and car are parked by the parking
lot, but, off the pavement, under a giant oak tree.It
must be acorn shedding time, because all hours of the day or night, we
are getting zinged by dropping acorns. There are also big black blobs on
this particular tree, at first we thought they were walnuts, but,

Our scarecrows ready to be put up in the lot

Kevin
said it was an oak tree, so we don't know what they are but, they make a
horrendous noise when they drop on the rig and car. We haven't gotten
dinged on the head yet, but, I figure it's just a matter of time....

Ron is marking off the days until we head south once
more. The weather isn't too bad yet, mild days and cool
nights. No rain in the foreseeable future, even though
it's been very dry

Pumpkins ready to be heads for the scarecrows

here this summer. We have a petting zoo
which consists of 2 baby pigs, 3 baby Nigerian Dwarf
goats, 6 baby bunnies and 5 chicks. We also have pumpkin
painting for the kids and free popcorn

Our goats, Levi & Iris

for everyone.

We're waiting for our gate to be fixed, because there's a
big gap at the bottom so we have to have a cage & the
trash can in front of it so the pigs don't get out.
Well, a few days after we got here, someone didn't put the cage back and next thing we
know, one of the pigs is walking right out of the gate. I
am sooo glad she didn't head for the front gate, as it
opens out right onto the busy street. Instead she headed
right around

They look so innocent when they are sleeping...notice the rabbits in the background

the enclosure, thinking, I guess, she could
get right back in with the other one. Ha, ha, wish she
could have, but, instead started making a beeline to the
cornstalks which were laying in a pile

Beautiful peach/dusty rose color

next to the animal
yard. Ron grabbed her back legs and she immediately
started squealing and pooping all over his hands. I walked
around and grabbed her by the middle and carried her back
to the yard, her squealing at high pitch the whole way
back. Whew!!!! I hope that doesn't happen anytime soon
again, how about never!!!

We will have a young woman manning

Some more unusual decorative gourds

the petting zoo on busy
weekends, though, just so that sort of thing doesn't
happen again. I just hope the goats don't get out,
although, we have their owner's phone number handy!

It is now the 16th of Oct, we've been here for two weeks, goodness,
where does the time go? It has rained exactly once and at that, not very
much, just enough to spot the pumpkins with dirt. It has gotten warmer
again and after this summer, I am more than ready for cool fall weather.
Hopefully, that will happen next week according to the weather
forecast.

The last two weekends we sold lots of pumpkins and the animals were just
as tired as we were at the end of the day. Now we are gearing up for
the final two weekends of the month. We will be getting another load of
pumpkins in on Thursday to meet everyone's needs for different sizes.

On weekdays, pre-school groups come visit us, picking pumpkins to paint
and visiting the petting zoo. The baby bunnies are a big hit, as well as
the goats and baby chicks. The pigs, not so much, normally they have so
much dirt on them, no one wants to touch them, ha, ha! I usually tell
the kids about how pumpkins grow, but, when you are talking to 2-3 year
olds, that mainly goes over their heads, I have a little more
participation from the 4-5 year olds, plus letting them look at a real
pumpkin vine which is growing amidst our patch all by itself. I'm
wondering where it's getting its water, as we don't water it, but, it's
looking nice and healthy.

In my witchy woman garb

Each day, the animals make us laugh with the different things they do.
When we feed them, we try and make it so the pigs won't eat the goat
food, keeping them away from the dish is hard, even when we are holding
it. Of course, they have their own food to eat, but, they like the goat
food better. The pigs rule the yard, whenever they come near the goats,
the goats scatter, usually standing on the bales of straw to get away.
I'm sure that has something to do with the stink of them!! Baby pigs are
okay, but, if we didn't have them in the yard, it wouldn't ever stink
and there would be a minimum of flies!

Our pigs and goats LOVE popcorn!!! The other night, two kids were
outside the pen eating popcorn. The pigs promptly ran over and jumped up
on the fence because they could smell it. They started running around
and squealing because they thought they should get fed this popcorn! We
finally told the boys that they could feed a few kernels to the pigs.

One of the things the pigs love is if you scratch them on the side of
their bellies. They will lie right down and go to sleep, they just love
to have their bellies rubbed. This is true for all ages of pigs, I know,
because I used to raise a pig and I would go into his pen and start
scratching his side. Down he would go, he loved it.

When the kids are in the pen, we try and encourage the parents to go in
with them, that way they can keep an eye on their own kids behavior, at
least, that's the idea. Some parents, sorry to say, don't keep an eye on
their kids whether

One of our gooseneck gourds painted by a customer

they are in or out of the pen and the kids just run
rampant and it's up to us to discipline them, which I really don't feel
is our responsibility, but, you can't have the kids running
indiscriminately over the tops of the pumpkins and risk them kicking off
the stems, or throwing the smaller pumpkins around or grabbing the
wagons and running around the pumpkin lot.

I guess there must have been a few

The other side

incidents at our other lot in
Saratoga this past weekend where the manager actually had to throw out a
few people and that just shouldn't happen. But, sometimes, when it's
for the good of the rest of the people that are in the patch minding
their own business, you have to do it. The welfare of the animals is
paramount and I will have no child tormenting any of our animals.

The weekdays are the longest for us, because just a handful of people
come onto the lot. Ron usually tells me to go back to the rig, and do
whatever, so these last couple of days, I've updated the blog to our
present time. I'm sure he would also like me to cook some pumpkin pie
while I'm at it. I did pick out a pumpkin to cut up and cook the pulp.
The problem is that we have limited electric where we are, so that means
I can't use the microwave, we just don't have the power for it. It
would be so easy to cut up the pumpkin and pop it in the microwave for
about 15 minutes or so to soften the pulp, then put it in the food
processor. As it is, I will either bake it or cook it on the stove top.

I was looking back at our experience in 2008 and noticed that I really
didn't post any pics of the specialty pumpkins, so this time, you get to
see what kind we are selling. Almost everything on the lot is edible,
it is some kind of pumpkin or squash. The only things that are not are
the gooseneck gourds and some smaller decorative pumpkins and squash.
The last time around, I baked several kinds of pumpkins into pies and
they tasted pretty much all the same except the textures were different.
This time I might make one of the white and one of the funny looking
barnacle ones. But, it better cool down or I'm not baking anything!

I will be adding more pictures as
the pigs have grown since we got here 2 1/2 weeks ago and so have the
chicks and we now have a third goat, Hazel, who is a year old. I also
have to get a picture of Ron in his Halloween outfit, as well as a
couple of our scarecrows and horses....stay tuned...

Monday, October 15, 2012

This is a continuation of our travels down the Oregon coast. It's from about a month ago.

After leaving Seaside after just a few

Nice stonework roadbed on Hwy 101

days, we
packed up and moved down to Pacific City. After
setting up, we decided to drive around and see the

Great view of the coastline looking south

place.
It was another sunny day and warm. There is really not
much to see here beside the beach, no

Our Pacific City campsite with a view out to the ocean

shops to look in,
some restaurants and that's about it. Lots of mansion like
houses on the

A map of Pacific City

hillsides, so looks like a

ritzy area. We
were driving down the road and I saw horseback riding with

running on the beach if you'd like and the hourly rate?
$45!!!!! Holy cow! I remember when I paid $10 an hour,
what happened??? When we were kids, we'd go to the
stables, rent the horses and go out on our own on the
trails. These

At the beach in Pacific City

days it seems we have to be monitored and go
with a lot of people at once, not sure why, maybe too many
lawsuits of people getting hurt? That's why they have
waivers to sign, you are riding at your own risk...

We did do some driving on the beach, though. I am being
surprised at every turn about Oregon and Washington.
Apparently, there are some places on their coast you can
actually drive on the beach! So, we went out on the sand,
drove around, got kinda close to the waves and took
pictures with the Jeep and the waves.

While we were still in Pacific City, we got a phone call from some Boomer friends
who used to be fulltimers, but, they have since bought a
house in Florence to be near their daughter and
granddaughters who live in Eugene.

On the beach

They are the friends we
stayed with when I was recuperating from my broken ankles.
Anyway, she was inquiring as to when we might be down
there and we told her we were trying to change our
reservations to come in earlier at South Jetty. So, we
made arrangements to meet the morning of the 19th to go
kayaking, yippee!! I was hoping we could get together with
them and do this and I've been watching the weather down
there and it looks like it's going to be perfect for doing
just that!

Meanwhile, I was on the computer trying to change our
reservations around, but, not having much success at it.
So, I finally had to call member services and got it all
taken care of. We are leaving here tomorrow and spending
three days in Newport, I know there will be more things to
do around there, then, down to Florence. We plan on
meeting up with the Bornkamps who are down at Winchester
Bay catching crabs. I want to see how it's done and see
the crabs in person. From what I've seen on FB, the crabs
look huge!

We have decided that we
probably won't come back here, as there is just not that
much to do, unless you like sunbathing a lot. We only
stayed the two days and then were on our way down to
Newport. The campground is about 5 miles south of town and
the internet is very iffy, we couldn't even get out, so
didn't even bother.

Our campsite at Newport Thousand Trails

When we got to the campground, we walked
down to the clubhouse to see what was going on and they
were having tacos, so we decided to join in. We ended up
doing some games as well, something we hadn't planned on
participating. When it was all done, I was doing something
and Ron

walked into the internet room and found Sam &
Alice Penney on their computers. We had seen a truck out
front with a Boomer sticker on the back window and it said
"Penny" on their car pass and I figured it would probably
be them. I hadn't seen them in awhile, so was looking for
them in the clubhouse. I'm glad we finally found them, so
talked with them a bit. They had already been there a week
and were up there doing their laundry before pulling out
the next morning, so we didn't really get to see them all
that much.

On our way down here, as we were passing through Lincoln
City, we passed a place where there were all these wind
things, I'm not sure what they are called, but, they
reminded me of the ones I saw in the movie, "Twister",
where the grandmother had them on her front lawn. Of
course, these weren't on such a grand scale, but, still,
it was great seeing them all. I told Ron that even though
it was half an hour back up the road, I wanted to go see
them the next day. So, the next day, we drove back up
there. It was part of an art gallery and of course, they
were all for sale. Ron asked and the guy said they ranged
in price from $300 to the very simple into the thousands
of dollars. After looking and taking pictures of them, we
went into the art gallery itself and saw some really cool
and unique items. One of them was a kaleidoscope made of
cut glass pieces in different colors, in a kind of oil.
Once you stopped twisting the end, it still moved and
changed, which was really cool. They weren't that
expensive and I should have bought one, but, I
didn't.....they had lots of other neat things in there, as
well.

After leaving there, we stopped and looked at all the
interesting sites along the coast and could see the fog
rolling in, the farther south we went. At one point, we
saw some whales in the distance. Of course, we didn't
actually see the whales, as they were too far off shore,
but, we could see them exhaling as they came to the
surface. About the time we came to Depoe Bay, the fog was
coming in thick and fast. We ate at a restaurant there and
again, had the crab sandwich, this time served on

The fog is rolling in....

sourdough bread instead of a croissant. It was good, but,
not as good as the one we had in Seaside.

The next day, we decided to stay in camp. While Ron
watched a movie, I took a walk along the beach, which was
just a little ways from the campground, across the
highway. The day was hazy, but, still okay. I have found
that if you are looking for whales, watching them from the
level of the beach is not a

Being a lighthouse keeper was a lonely existence

good place to see anything,
unless you are watching dolphins swim in the surf. It
wasn't until I got back to the path and was up a little
ways that I saw some more whales in the distance. The
problem was, the fog was starting to come in again, so
they were right at the edge of it. But, I did

Beach across from campground

see a couple
and they were being followed by tour boats, because I
could see a reflection of something winking back at me,
most likely a camera flash or something. I followed them
for a little while before the fog swallowed them up. When
we come back this way, I would like to stay at Newport
longer than just a couple of days.

The next day, we left to head for Florence. We had a nice
drive, but, some of the grades going up and down the
mountains between Newport & Florence were almost a bit
much for the old girl. We finally arrived safely to our
campsite at the Thousand Trails about a mile outside of
town.

Our campsite in Florence

We called our friends, Frank & Mary, and then
went over to their house to see them and go for a short
hike behind their house into the dunes. Their house backs
up to a forest of trees and they even have a cute little
creek running through it. They've built up the rocks so
that they have a little waterfall flowing through and it
sounds quite restful. Ron got introduced to Frank's flock
of chickens and we both got to meet their new puppy. You
know, I had all this commentary written out before I lost
half of it and I used to know the name of the puppy, but,
now the name escapes me. She is a boxer mix and very cute.
She loves to chase balls and sometimes brings them back.
She loved our walk, because she got to explore off leash
on most of the trail. On our way home, we picked a bunch
of blackberries, some blueberries and a raspberry, that
Mary is going to make a cobbler out of tomorrow night. We
made plans to meet the next morning for our kayak ride.

The weather dawned like it was going to rain, but, we
braved the elements and

Heading out....

went anyway. We went to a nearby
lake, planning to spend a couple of hours on the lake.
It's been five years since we last kayaked, with them,

Remains of an old ship

as
a matter of fact. Within just a short time of paddling,
Ron was already realizing he was out of shape. I did okay,
but, we both agreed that if we'd gone on the last trip we
made with them from one of the lakes in the area to the
sea, we would not have made it back....funny how five
years can make such a difference at our ages. It doesn't
seem possible that we were in better shape back then,
compared to now and back then, we hadn't paddled in
ages...

Sharon looking at the scenery

We had arrived right in the middle of her work schedule,
so although Mary had her days free, she still had to work
nights, but, that was better than if she'd had to work
days.

Lots of stairs to climb from the boat dock

The final day that they were going to be in town, we
went beachcombing to a beach we hadn't been

to before,
just up the coast. We saw lots and lots of driftwood, but,
little else of treasures.

Frank, Mary & their new puppy, Trudy

I envy them living on the coast,
because when their big storms

Interesting patterns in the river running into the ocean

come in, they have the
opportunity to go out and see what treasures have been
brought in by the sea. All around their house, they have
little baskets of small glass

Ron and I walking in the fog

floats from Japan, small
glass medicine bottles from Japan or Russia, agates,
shells, etc. We did bring home a piece

of driftwood which
we each signed and

Driftwood log jam

hung on their netting on the side of
the house.

On Friday, they left to go camping with their kids at
Silver Falls State Park,

Visiting Gordon & Laura in Winchester Bay

which is east of Salem, so we
were on our own once again. So, we contacted fellow
Boomers, Laura and Gordon, who were in

Catching crabs

Winchester Bay
catching crabs. We found it was only 20 miles south of us,
but, first, we drove down to Coos Bay, because Ron had
always heard

Look at all those crabs!

about it and wanted to see what it looked
like. Well, we came, we saw and we were not too impressed,
just a

I think this one may be a bit too little...

town, but, not a cute little beach town, because it
was on a back bay. So, we just drove through,

Female

turned
around and headed back to Winchester Bay.

Male

Had a great day learning all about how to catch crabs in a
trap, clean

Look out for those claws!

them, cut them up and then, later cook them.
We walked around the area, can't

Measuring

even hardly call it a
town, there's a gas station/mini mart, and a small grocery
store/bakery/mail room/gift

Cleaning and cutting up

Someone cleaning their salmon

store.They also drove us
around the bay area, they had two traps

Laura & Gordon Bornkamp, me & Ron

out in the bay
which one of their friends was checking the nets and one
off the

Salmon fisherman in the bay

dock. There's a lighthouse run by the Coast Guard
and we saw

Checking crab traps

some oyster beds out in the bay. Lots of people
in the channel out to the ocean, some were fishing for
salmon and

Throwing back a female

others for crabs. We had a late lunch of fresh
crab, YUM!!! Then, joined everyone for happy hour. Laura
gave us some more crab to take home with us, and the very
next night, we had them for dinner!!! I told Ron, I

Oyster beds in distance

Standing on docks looking up into "old" town of Florence

want
to come back here and catch my own crab so we can have
fresh crab

Looking out towards sand dunes

whenever we want.

Saturday, we stayed home and caught up on laundry and
other things, but, Sunday, went off to "old town" Florence
and walked around the shops. We found a farmers market and
I bought some "sungold" cherry tomatoes, they have a nice
sweet taste

Unique window decor

to them and also some squash. We took lots of
pictures and even met a mother and her two daughters who
had crab traps right off the dock in the bay. They were
doing pretty good, considering most of their catch were
females, which they had to throw back, but, still, they
had a goodly amount of males.

About Me

We have been full timing in an RV since May of 1993, and are still loving every minute of it. There is just so much to see in this great country of ours. We now live in our '59 Flxible VL-100 bus conversion and although it isn't totally done, we can still travel around in relative comfort.